1. The noise, both Xbox 360 and PS3 are noisy.
2. Power consumption. 360 and PS3 are energy whores.
3. The Size, ATV is tiny.
4. One format to rule them all. Encode all vides into Apple format so they play on all your Apple devices.
5. Airplay

I have 3 x xbox 360's and 1 PS3 in my home. If they were used for video playback I would have a monty power bill.

6. Plays Apple Lossless.
7. I don't want a PS3 for every TV but $99 is a good price to have four Apple TVs.
8. Already have a Blu-ray player and I'm not wiling to downgrade to a PS3. Can't stand the bluetooth remote with the PS3 anyway.

WTF are you posting here for? You aren't allowed to give opinions on this forum if you've used both products. You can only post that one is terrible or not on assumption- not if you've actually owned and used it! Seriously... why are you here?

Apple TV is a great Apple ecosystem accessory. it only needs two things to become a "killer" product:

1. HDMI inputs and a revamped main screen showing their active content in PIP buttons, so it can become your TV's home screen, that you can then control the selected input with apps like Tivo's, Xfinity's, etc. - all from your iOS device, not some IR remote.

2. a totally reworked iOS Remote app to control your ATV itself. the current app is really lame.

Love my AppleTV. Best $99 I've ever spent. For me personally, it's worth it for the internet radio alone - love being able to get all that music through my home theater setup. My only two wants for it are a Hulu app and a subscription model for watching TV shows. Don't really want to pay $1 per episode, and I for darn sure don't want to own any episodes. But yeah, the thing is great.

1. The noise, both Xbox 360 and PS3 are noisy.
2. Power consumption. 360 and PS3 are energy whores.
3. The Size, ATV is tiny.
4. One format to rule them all. Encode all vides into Apple format so they play on all your Apple devices.
5. Airplay

I have 3 x xbox 360's and 1 PS3 in my home. If they were used for video playback I would have a monty power bill.

1. the PS3 isn't noisy, neither of mines make much noise at all.
2. PS3 isn't an energy whore, the first gen was, but so is the first gen Apple TV
3. I have the first gen AppleTV, it isn't that tiny
4. You mean just like the PS3? All my videos play fine on my AppleTV, PS3 and iPods
5. What's that, my Apple TV doesn't have anything called Airplay on it, Apple dumped it and no longer adds features, unlike Sony that is still providing firmware updates for my 2007 european release PS3

I know what you mean about the power usage, I have unplugged my first gen AppleTV because it uses so much power, and except for pulling the power there is no way of physically turning it off.

6. Plays Apple Lossless.
7. I don't want a PS3 for every TV but $99 is a good price to have four Apple TVs.
8. Already have a Blu-ray player and I'm not wiling to downgrade to a PS3. Can't stand the bluetooth remote with the PS3 anyway.

Downgrade to a PS3? It is still the best featured blu-ray player there is

Not in the slightest. Does XBMC include a browser? Does Boxee? Does Roku? Do ANY of the services that actually compete with the Apple TV other than Google, which HAS TO because that's their business model?

Have you even used a Google TV? That wretched little nub with which you're supposed to move the cursor ARE THEY COMPLETELY INSANE?! That's not even REMOTELY usable by any human being. Only a masochist with twelve hours to waste getting that cursor to move would want to do that.

So do I.[/QUOTE]

I have XBMC on a mac mine. I haven't found a way to browse from it but you can browse using safare though and it is very worthwhile for searching for and viewing content. It is especially useful for checking out TV stations.

Don't you know better that to bring up Blu Ray to this crowd? Steve (rip) said no to blu ray a while back so that makes it the enemy.

Like flash on iOS.
Like matte screens.
Like USB 3.0 and camera card slots.
Like intel chips. Well, the fan base kinda caved on that one.

According to Apple you don't need physical media. "but what about home movies.". You ask? How do you share them with you're family in hi def quality? Simple. Use the MobileMe web gallery. But you had better hurry. You only have a few months left before they kill that too.

You don't have to be completely sarcastic. While it's true that Flash on iOS didn't happen, it didn't happen for some very good reasons. Matte screens are available on MacBook Pros if you really want them, most Macs have camera card slots and USB 3.0 will arrive when Ivy Bridge shows up in the spring.

Physical media was something Steve really didn't like in later years and given the licensing issues regarding Blu-Ray, Apple never considered it worth the trouble. Blu-Ray licensing required OS-level DRM at many different layers, which was something Apple didn't want to implement. They were already leading the charge away from DRM in the music business. That was the "bag of hurt" Steve was referring to.

The main thing Apple TV is missing is apps. No, I'm not talking about facebook or angry birds. I'm talking about apps that serve up video content. Obviously, Hulu comes to mind, but once the app floodgates are open, some pretty marvelous things could follow.

Netflix is allowed because their TV episodes and movies are usually 1-2 years out of date. Hulu/Hulu+ runs current season and new episodes on a 1 week delay which is, of course, in conflict with iTunes TV and Movie sales. So something will need to change before Hulu-like services or apps are allowed.

Quote:

Instead of paying $60 a month for 500 channels that I don't watch on cable just so I can have three or four that I DO watch, I'd rather pay a few bucks a month for a Comedy Central app so I could watch the Daily Show and Colbert.

I'd also like a data only iPhone4 cellular plan so that I can do all my phone calls and texting through a VoIP app. But that's not going to happen. AT&T, VZW, Sprint, T-Mo, they all want to force the $40 "call package" and $20 "unlimited" texting.

HBO's exec is all hot and bothered and labeling anyone using a Roku or AppleTV like device "cord cutters". Vowing to -*never*- offer their content on such devices. You're supposed to be paying $60 - $100 a month, not just $5-10 for the few channels you actually want. To Comcast / TimeWarner / Cox / HBO etc ... what you're doing is highway robbery.

I'd also like a data only iPhone4 cellular plan so that I can do all my phone calls and texting through a VoIP app. But that's not going to happen. AT&T, VZW, Sprint, T-Mo, they all want to force the $40 "call package" and $20 "unlimited" texting.

I'd like a phone-only iPhone plan, but that's not going to happen. They all want to force the $30 'data package' and $? 'texting' nonsense.

HDMI inputs and a revamped main screen showing their active content in PIP buttons, so it can become your TV's home screen, that you can then control the selected input with apps like Tivo's, Xfinity's, etc. - all from your iOS device, not some IR remote.

Not sure how this would work exactly- but I love it.

I'd kill to never have to change inputs on my TV and just change it on my ATV.

The future of AppleTV is indeed an interesting one. The actual Apple television screen product is one of the worst kept secrets in the industry and now apparently everyone believes Apple will do this product, not just Gene Munster. But even if Apple sells a bunch of TVs, the set top box AppleTV is still necessary since it's a gateway to everyone who doesn't own an Apple branded television.

From a hardware standpoint, a 1080p version powered by an A6 makes a lot of sense. What it does past that is anyone's guess. I've always thought that a box like this is Sony and Microsoft's worst nightmare concerning the gaming community. Both the Xbox360 and PS3 are ancient in terms of hardware. The PS3 I own was a tech beast of its day....7 cores PPC and bad@ss graphics....but that was five years ago. The Xbox360 is even older. A four core AppleTV can easily compete with either of those systems, both in performance and graphics, all while being much more efficient in power consumption. With a strong iOS gaming development community, the existing console gaming world is ripe for disruption, especially if the price is right.

The big problem for making it a gaming console concerns large scale storage. The current AppleTV only has 8 GB of storage, mostly as a caching function. Some of the larger PS3 and XBOX360 games rely on spinning discs for delivery of larger games and hard disks for installations. SSDs are still pretty expensive. You could have a PC/Mac on the network to locally store larger games but that's a pain. Using a built in hard drive would be seen as a step backwards. The cloud could work but the performance is going to be a big problem, even now. When the PS3 network was down this past year, no one was able to play any game, despite that they were locally stored. And finally, Apple will need to make a real game controller.

Honestly, video content is the easy part....the big issue is business models and contracting. There is no technical hurdle.

I'd like a phone-only iPhone plan, but that's not going to happen. They all want to force the $30 'data package' and $? 'texting' nonsense.

Not exactly sure why I got that response... You want to cut your contract one way and I want to cut it another way.

Either way... "They" don't want it. But devices like AppleTV are allowing us to cut away the crap. Similar to how iTunes music busted "record" sales. Now you just buy the songs you want. You don't have to pay for the other crap included.

I'd kill to never have to change inputs on my TV and just change it on my ATV.

AppleTV sits between your components and the TV/monitor just like an A/V receiver. Your HDMi video out goes to TV/monitor and all your HDMI inputs are for your other devices. TV/monitor never moves off the HDMI, it even plugs into the AppleTV A/V receiver so it will power on when you use the ATV remote. AppleTV UI overlays all your input accessories as needed.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

Hm.. ok. I will concede that. Optimistically, though, that certainly could happen. But, it can't happen right now. ATT/ VZW would drop iPhone like a bad habit, leaving Apple high and dry if they did such, -at this point-.

I don't know why anyone would buy AppleTV when Xbox 360 and PS3 do so much more. And let's face it, the way to get content on to AppleTV is also less than ideal - where is the USB slot or the Blu Ray drive?

$99

How much is an X-Box 360 or PS3?

Do they work well with Macs and iOS devices i.e. AirPlay?

PS Why doesn't my Sony Blueray player play the content from my PS3 media server, you can see the files but I always get a corrupt file message after a wait, with my Apple TV I can play anything in my iTunes library.

Better than my Bose, better than my Skullcandy's, listening to Mozart through my LeBron James limited edition PowerBeats by Dre is almost as good as my Sennheisers.

I'm downsizing our cable bill, and recently got an AppleTV. It's connected to our kitchen TV where we had a Roku and the crappy cable box. So far, I am very impressed! Not a single technical glitch in setup or use so far, and super easy to use.

The downside is no Hulu or Pandora, which my wife uses a lot. I will be putting the Roku back along side the Apple TV, and investigating xbmc as well.

In our living room, we have an Xbox 360. Frankly, that does a fantastic job for Netflix and Hulu, and of course games. I also have to thank it for filling in the gaming gap in a Windows-less household! Unfortunately, it is clunky for other media. I use Rivet to serve content from our Mac Mini, which works well enough. Only problem is any video with 5.1 audio only comes through as stereo. (I think this is solvable, if I transcode to another format.) We also have an Airport Express for music streaming. It would be nice to simplify the system a little bit.

I actually would like another AppleTV for the living room, but can't justify one now. I'm kind of hoping Apple releases an ATV3 that supports higher-bitrate 1080p output.

A friend uses a PS3 to stream from a PC. My experience with it was pretty bad; took an hour for him to resolve technical glitches and get watching!

ATT/ VZW would drop iPhone like a bad habit, leaving Apple high and dry if they did such, -at this point-.

And their customers would drop them like a bad habit, moving to other carriers and never returning, bankrupting them in short order.

Apple has the POWER to do it NOW. The iPhone means that much to that many people. Why they haven't yet is beyond me. The product creators are the ones in charge, not the telecoms. Apple was the first to see that, and they apparently remain the only one. Apple has the power to do exactly what they did in music: take total control over distribution.

Yes, the studios still get money from the songs. Apple tells them how the songs are sold.

Yes, the telecoms would still get money from their customers' phone plans. Apple would tell them how the phones are sold.

For me the Apple TV is worth it. I don't have a Xbox 360 or a PS3 I PC game and do very little of that any more. For me the Apple TV was great, but i don't see it as a need for people that have all the capability with other devices, I don't see anything but airplay(a nifty but limited feature) as truly exclusive feature.

AppleTV sits between your components and the TV/monitor just like an A/V receiver. Your HDMi video out goes to TV/monitor and all your HDMI inputs are for your other devices. TV/monitor never moves off the HDMI, it even plugs into the AppleTV A/V receiver so it will power on when you use the ATV remote. AppleTV UI overlays all your input accessories as needed.

Lol... I understand how it plugs in. . I'm asking how it would decode like a normal av receiver does. Or is it basically a "splitter" of sorts?

AppleTV sits between your components and the TV/monitor just like an A/V receiver. Your HDMi video out goes to TV/monitor and all your HDMI inputs are for your other devices. TV/monitor never moves off the HDMI, it even plugs into the AppleTV A/V receiver so it will power on when you use the ATV remote. AppleTV UI overlays all your input accessories as needed.

There are models that have multiple inputs and an output to a TV/monitor, thus being a median device. So in that respect those models are like what I and others have described for that aspect of its functionality.

This bot has been removed from circulation due to a malfunctioning morality chip.

You don't have to be completely sarcastic. While it's true that Flash on iOS didn't happen, it didn't happen for some very good reasons. Matte screens are available on MacBook Pros if you really want them, most Macs have camera card slots and USB 3.0 will arrive when Ivy Bridge shows up in the spring.

Physical media was something Steve really didn't like in later years and given the licensing issues regarding Blu-Ray, Apple never considered it worth the trouble. Blu-Ray licensing required OS-level DRM at many different layers, which was something Apple didn't want to implement. They were already leading the charge away from DRM in the music business. That was the "bag of hurt" Steve was referring to.

You dont think there is a little bit of a disconnect when a company sells a high end video editing software and leaves you no way to share you're project?

I totally bought the web gallery concept and then apple killed it and left you with no alternative but to go third party to get the job done.

Doesn't make sense coming from the company that pioneered the all in one computer.

PS: love the comment, but believe your timeline's off by a decade - we're talking mid-late 90's here, unless you had other devices in mind.

Heh, I remember those. No, I'm pretty sure it was the mid '80s. We're talking monochrome outputs and Apple ][-level graphics here Gosh, I just can't remember the name It was less 'surfing' (as the concept hadn't really been invented yet) and more shopping/education

Heh, I remember those. No, I'm pretty sure it was the mid '80s. We're talking monochrome outputs and Apple ][-level graphics here Gosh, I just can't remember the name It was less 'surfing' (as the concept hadn't really been invented yet) and more shopping/education

Ah yes, Teletext! I always wished for something that cool back in the day...

Heh, I remember those. No, I'm pretty sure it was the mid '80s. We're talking monochrome outputs and Apple ][-level graphics here… Gosh, I just can't remember the name… It was less 'surfing' (as the concept hadn't really been invented yet) and more shopping/education…

1. The noise, both Xbox 360 and PS3 are noisy.
2. Power consumption. 360 and PS3 are energy whores.
3. The Size, ATV is tiny.
4. One format to rule them all. Encode all vides into Apple format so they play on all your Apple devices.
5. Airplay

I have 3 x xbox 360's and 1 PS3 in my home. If they were used for video playback I would have a monty power bill.

I own original AppleTv, PS3 and plasma HDTV. All are energy hogs (heh, heh). PS3 for HD - there is a reason I got an HDTV in the first place. AppleTV for DVD rips (aka SD) and they play on iDevices.

I don't know why anyone would buy AppleTV when Xbox 360 and PS3 do so much more. And let's face it, the way to get content on to AppleTV is also less than ideal - where is the USB slot or the Blu Ray drive?

it only costs $99. Some people don't want a gaming device & already have a Blu-Ray player.

I can't speak for the SonyPS, but the interface on the Xbox360 is visual barf and puts me in an instant bad mood.

I just don't understand how so many companies can't make a decent U.I. that is visually pleasing. Is there only one formula and only Apple can figure it out? It perplexes me. It must be very difficult.

I don't know why anyone would buy AppleTV when Xbox 360 and PS3 do so much more.

As an owner of all three I can tell you why I use the AppleTV far more than the other two - speed, and the UI on the AppleTV beats them hands down. Finally - AirPlay. Was awesome when it was Audio only, now with video support it's becoming must have.

And let's face it, the way to get content on to AppleTV is also less than ideal - where is the USB slot or the Blu Ray drive?

Let's face it, as soon as you said USB you dropped into a micro-fraction of the population. The vast majority of people would rather get something for a buck or two from Apple, Amazon or Netflix than screw around with torrents, ripping DVDs or USB sticks. Your in a complete fantasy land if you think that's a mainstream feature.

As for BlueRay - big whoop - I have a PS3. BlueRay players are a dime a dozen. Why does Apple have to replicate whats there? BlueRay would be completely redundant for me since I already have the best BluRay player - said PS3.

Don't you know better that to bring up Blu Ray to this crowd? Steve (rip) said no to blu ray a while back so that makes it the enemy.

Like flash on iOS.
Like matte screens.
Like USB 3.0 and camera card slots.
Like intel chips. Well, the fan base kinda caved on that one.

According to Apple you don't need physical media. "but what about home movies.". You ask? How do you share them with you're family in hi def quality? Simple. Use the MobileMe web gallery. But you had better hurry. You only have a few months left before they kill that too.

Obama is a troll - who'd have thunk that?

I for one, however, really wanted a blu-ray drive on my MBP. Since it became obvious that Apple wasn't going to put one in, I went ahead and bought the Early 2011 model when it was available. Recently I picked up a Sony external blu-ray drive. The thing is really sweet and supports burning 3D blu-ray discs, as well as 100GB discs. I don't use it to watch movies on the MBP, but I use it to burn a few discs. I am happy with it.

Currently I burn media using Windows software via Fusion. I am still researching software for the mac. I'm not sure if I should take the plunge and buy Toast, or whether I can find an alternative.